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Author: Cobus van Staden

The G7’s New Infrastructure Initiative Could Strengthen China’s Global South Game: Experts

The G7’s new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), a $600 billion plan to build infrastructure across the Global South and counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), could have the effect of improving how Chinese companies do business and could end up improving the BRI itself, ...

One Day After the Announcement of PGII, Everyone has Questions

The G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), announced on Monday, is the newest Western initiative aimed at countering the influence in the Global South of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI.)  Perhaps predictably, the announcement drew sharp criticism from official ...

What Will U.S. Diplomats Talk About Now?

After knowing for weeks that the end of Roe v Wade was coming, its official end was still a shock. As an outsider, I worried about my American friends and the countless poor, black, brown, and LGBT+ Americans that will suffer ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G7’s New Infrastructure Initiative Could Strengthen China’s Global South Game: Experts

The G7’s new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), a $600 billion plan to build infrastructure across the Global South and counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), could have the effect of improving how Chinese companies do business and could end up improving the BRI itself, according to development experts. 

Some acknowledged that the BRI has been controversial for its environmental and debt impacts. But they also pointed out ...

How Will the G7’s PGII Differ from China’s BRI? An Expert Weighs In

Responses to the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) have run the gamut from enthusiastic approval to strident condemnation. However, many have also raised questions about how the initiative will actually work.  While the PGII is currently presented as an ...

No Surprise, Chinese State Media Didn’t Think Much of PGII, But They Actually Raised a Few Interesting Points

The Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times was among the first to launch broadsides against the G7's latest effort to challenge the Belt and Road. Predictably, the paper interviewed several scholars who all discredited the new program, but rather than simply dismiss it, as they often do, they ...

PGII Will Channel a Lot of Private Capital to Developing Countries But What About the Debt?

Even as the G7 was unveiling its new Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), protesters in the Alpine town hosting the summit were calling for more action on infrastructure-related debt. This debate has recently centered around the impact of Chinese debt, particularly as part of ...

Prominent China Scholar Maps a Way Out For Beijing’s Global South Debt Crisis

With the global economy steadily sliding towards recession, a growing number of Chinese bankers are no doubt becoming increasingly nervous about whether they'll ever see again the tens of billions of dollars they lent to developing countries over the past two decades. ...

Tuvalu Minister Pulls out of U.N. Ocean Conference After China Blocks Its Taiwanese Delegates

Simon Kofe, the foreign minister of Tuvalu, pulled out of the United Nations Ocean Conference opening in Portugal on Monday after China blocked the participation of three Taiwanese included in the tiny Pacific island nation's delegation list, according to Radio New Zealand. (REUTERS)

Communist Party of China Reaches Out to Nigerian Political Parties

Nigeria’s Inter-Party Advisory Council, an umbrella organization representing all the country’s registered political parties, held a joint seminar with the Chinese embassy and the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Under the ...

China’s Censors Catch Up with Discussions of BBC Racism Expose

China’s censors are now cracking down on online discussions sparked by the BBC documentary “Racism for Sale.” The program exposes the trade in online videos in which African children are tricked into repeating demeaning phrases in Mandarin. 

Chinese Scholars Map the Future of Africa-China Relations

How are Africa-China relations changing in response to crises like Ukraine? Few are more preoccupied with this issue than China’s Africa scholars. The Africa Research Group of the Eurasia Systems Science Society, which includes some of the most prominent Africa scholars in China, recently hosted a conference ...

China Kicks Off HoA Conference With Offer to Mediate Regional Conflicts

China's Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa (HoA), Xue Bing, opened a two-day peace conference in Addis Ababa on Monday with an unexpected offer that he would personally make himself available to mediate some of the conflicts currently roiling the region. ...

“New” Poll Reaffirms China Far Less Popular Than the U.S. as World Leader

The same week that a pan-African survey revealed that China, for the first time, outperformed the United States in overall favorability, another poll comparing the two major powers, this time by the geopolitical risk consultancy Eurasia Group Foundation, came out with very ...
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